Question
I've lost fabulous large Beach Heliotrope trees to 2 hurricanes (be it years ago# and finally got around to purchasing a couple of 5-year-old specimens that were planted several months ago.  All looked fine until just about 1-2 weeks ago and now both are very nearly completely dead #they are gasping for life and it makes me very sad#. I think my yard service inadvertently weed whacked the bark off both my new plantings as there are obvious sections without bark on both the trees and it appears no nutrition is getting to the trees at all.  Although the trees seemed to have been doing OK ( I might add these 5 year old specimens were only about 4-5 feet tall to begin with and very expensive= $150+/tree) now within just a couple of weeks the entire trees leaves and flowers are now brown and swirling. So here is my first question: can I trim the dead tree down to where there is still bark and they will survive? Would that save the trees?  If the answer is that will not save the trees then ...I am now determined to start a few new trees from the surviving other flourishing 20-35 year-old Beach Heliotrope trees I have on my property.  Can I do that by grafting?  
I am on a windy ocean bluff on the island of Kauai, Hawaii so conditions are ideal for these trees.

Answer
Hi Susan,
Thanx for your question.  I lived in Aiea on Oahu for a few years back in the early 80s.  Unfortunately, I never made it to the Garden Isle of Kauai.  If you will go to your local nursery, I'm sure they have preparations for tree wounds.  You may want to try a product like Treekote to see if that will help your trees.

http://www.cspoutdoors.com/treekwoundre.html

Contact the Kauai County office of the Hawai'i Cooperative Extension Service.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/extprograms.aspx

Apparently, the tree is easily propagated from cuttings without rooting hormone.  

Here are instructions from the University of Hawai'i.

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~eherring/hawnprop/hel-anom.htm

I hope this helps.
Tom